Chicken Ways

Lesson 8 from Handbook Of Nature Study

Brown Americauna Hen

1.  Did the chick get out of the egg by its own efforts?
yes  Of what use is the little tooth which is on the tip of the upper part of a young chick's beak?  to bite through the shell.  Does this remain?  no. 
2.  What is the difference between the down of the chick and the feathers of the hen?  a chick can't do anything with the down, but a hen can do a lot such as flying.  The little chick has wings; why can it not fly?  Down is not the right kind of feathers.

Claire's watercolor painting
of our chickens' eggs

3.  Why is the chick just hatched so pretty and downy, while the young robin is so bare and ugly?  the chick has to get up and find its own breakfast, but a robin baby is born blind and doesn't need to hunt for his own food, for his mom and dad bring it to him.
4.  How does the young chick get its food?  Scratching and pecking along with the mother hen.

My painting of our
chickens' eggs

5.  Does the chick chew its food before swallowing?  If not, why?  No, there is a mill inside of the chick's body that grinds up the food when it gets there.  The chick swallows tiny rocks to help grind the food.
6.  How does the chick drink?  By lifting up his head and letting the water slide down his throat.  For the chick does not have any muscles in his throat as people do.
7.  Where does the chick sleep at night?  Beneath his mother's wing.  Where will it sleep when it is grown up?  On a roost with his head under his wing.

White Americauna Hen

We have several different breeds of chickens.  Americaunas lay blue-green eggs.  The Buff Orpington and Barred Rocks lay brown eggs.  Our Leghorn lays white eggs, but we haven't been able to find her eggs lately.  She is a good hider.

One Less Tooth...

...for Claire to have to brush tonight!

Oh, tooth fairy!

Snow On The Mountain

wasp

Snow On the Mountain

As we headed toward the white clumps in the pasture behind our house, I just knew we were going to have great success with this week's outdoor challenge: Queen Anne's Lace.  However, upon our arrival, I was briefly disappointed to discover that the clumps were not Queen Anne's Lace.  I quickly recovered my excitement observing the beauty of what we HAD found, and decided it would make a fine substitute.

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Butterfly

Bee?

At home, we discovered our plant to be Bishop's Weed, or as we prefer, Snow On The Mountain.  Apparently, it is a highly sought after ground cover for flower gardens.  Just think, people pay good money for this stuff and we have thousands growing wild as weeds in our pasture!  I noticed them in the spring.  The variegated leaves are much more impressive than the tiny white flowers.  Together, they are quite a sight.  Especially covering an otherwise barren hillside as this picture shows.

bee

We could detect no scent from the flowers.  We observed three different kinds of bees and a wasp frequenting the blossoms.  The stem feels smooth, but is covered with tiny fine hairs.  The thick leaves point upwards alternating as they climb towards the end of the stem.  The topmost leaves have the "snow." 

Our arrangement

We read that these make excellent cut flowers for arrangements, and will last a long time if the stems are dipped in boiling water.  So, we tried it.  We discovered that white milk bleeds out when the stem is cut or the leaves are removed.  It is a little sticky.

Claire's watercolor painting
of Bishop's Weed

Most of the plants we saw were about 2 feet tall.  They grew mostly along the edges of the field near the fence row.  As there were hundreds of them, we didn't feel the least bit guilty clipping all we could carry.

Pokeberry Paint

Indian War Paint?

While playing outside on this beautiful, unseasonably cool morning, the children discovered a Pokeberry bush.  I don't imagine that it took them long to discover the best use for this find.  I had warned them to never eat Pokeberries, (thankfully).

Green Eggs!

Green Eggs but no ham

Finally, blue-green eggs!  Our Americauna chicks finally begin laying today.  We found these two small eggs in the nesting box.  I photographed them beside the larger brown eggs which came from our 3 year old hens; a Barred-Rock and a Buff Orpington; to highlight the difference in size and color.  We should be getting 8-9 a day soon!

Another milestone

It may seem insignificant to others, but Claire independently placed her first phone call.  I simply told her the Grandma's phone number.  She wrote it down, dialed it properly, reached Grandma, stated her business, (is it alright if Licorice comes with us today?), and passed the information on to me.  What a big girl!

Off with the training wheels

Milestone: Cody rode his bike today without training wheels for the first time. He only rode for about 5 minutes, then he asked that the training wheels be replaced. He didn't much care for mom jogging behind him holding him up by his shirt tail. At this time, he perceives no training wheels as a loss of independence rather than a gain so I don't think he is going to be very excited about conquering this milestone.